EN: What’s new on Vintag this month? Madame Ilary and I! I mean, we have been there for a while now, personally with my vintage space theladybugchronicles, Madame Ilary with her beautiful turbans inspired by the 30s and 40s divas (user: madameilary). The big news is that we are there together!

A few months ago, we were chatting in her showroom in Milan and we had the idea of creating something together, something that would put together our biggest passions: vintage, fashion, travels, couture, African wax and vintage and ethnic decorations. This is how our collection was born, while drinking wine and eating biscuits (I know, it’s not very romantic but it’s how it really happened!): a capsule collection of vintage denim jackets and vests (that we selected personally) with a kind of oversized flare, from the end of the 70s and the 80s, that we decorated by hand with African wax fabrics (mostly bought during my trip to Senegal last summer) and with ethnic and vintage trimmings (selected by Madame Ilary or found in her huge personal archive full of timeless wonders!).

Decorated denim is now a classic but we wanted to give it a different twist, that would represent us but that could bring something new to the table. Mixing vintage trimmings and super colored African fabrics was a bit risky but it was a success!

We were a bit reluctant at the beginning: the investment was not too big (maybe a bit in terms of time and energy) and we decided to start with six pieces (four jackets and two vests) to see how it could go. We presented our first collection during the Design Week events in Milan in Madame Ilary showroom and we put our pieces on sale on Vintag, sharing them also on our social media. I would love to introduce each one of them to you because they all have a story, a memory, a travel to tell.

The first piece that we created is this beautiful dark denim vest from the end of the 70s (quite hard to find) that we decorated with a wax fabric that I personally bought in Senegal and with golden trimmings that you can also find on some Madame Ilary turbans. Here I wore it with sequined turban (on sale on Vintag) and silk skirt created by Ilaria.

The second piece is a vintage 80s denim jacket decorated with golden trims (so loved by Ilaria!) and a colored wax fabric that I received as a present in Senegal. With this same fabric Ilaria created a wonderful turban that I wore basically everyday while on holiday in Barcelona! With this same wax fabric we created also the denim jacket in the picture below, but in this case we mixed African wax and Indian trims (a present from a friend of mine on holiday in India that we also use for the above-mentioned turban!) on a vintage 80s jacket. In these pictures I wear culottes, long skirt and turbans from Madame Ilary.

Speaking of Indian trims (courtesy of Federica who bought them for me in India a few months ago!) we created another vintage vest – end of the 70s, beginning of the 80s – with colored pompom with an ethnic feel (culottes and maxi turban Madame Ilary).

A bit less oversize, with a beautiful wash and rigorously vintage, this piece was decorated with an African wax fabric that I love (personally bought in Senegal!) and paired with little silver studs and fringes that we found perfect for this mix!

Last but not least we decided to add a vintage white denim piece, a bit hard to find but with a great effect because we decorated it with an African fuchsia and yellow wax (a great fabric, a present from Senegalese friends) and wooden colored pearls and pompoms.

With our greatest satisfaction this collection was a success and only two pieces are still on sale (you can find them on Vintag in my space theladybugchronicles) and we received a lot of requests for creating customized ones with specific colors and decorations so…keep following us on Vintag or contact us through private message on the app if you want your tailored one!

EN: I have been living in Milan for six years now, in a flat that I loved at first sight and that I feel more and more as “mine” even if it’s not. It is normal that with the time that place we live in looks like us and, piece after piece, it has now a style in the middle between vintage and ethnic so that it is clear that it is the place where I live!

I love finding new pieces during my travels or in the vintage markets that I visit; I bring them with me and I place them strategically at home so that when I see them they recall me a happy moment of the past. This decoration of my flat is never ending and since I discovered the Antiques section of the Vintag app is definitely intensifying!

I generally prefer the modern style but vintage homeware is a must: in my dream house (that I imagine bigger than mine!) there are at least ten pieces that I consider essential! They can be furniture or decorative objects, here is my top ten and where to find them on Vintag!

1.The vintage screen, oriental style: it’s maybe because it reminds me of my granny’s house (she had a very similar one to hide while taking off her clothes and put her nightgown on) but the vintage screen is on top of my list! Since I saw the 70s one sold by roaaaar on Vintag, exactly the same of my granny’s, I madly fell in love with it! Unfortunately my granny’s one got too used and we couldn’t “save” it but I almost fainted when I saw one exactly like hers!

2.The ethnic chair: although I dream of one of these amazing Malian chairs that I saw in many markets in Dakar last summer, I found on Vintag a beautiful piece that I want to share with you: a wonderful Indian chair sold by ManuLove for which I completely lost my mind a few weeks ago when I saw it in my search page…isn’t it amazing?

3.The sewing machine: another piece that reminds me of my granny! When I see vintage sewing machines, especially the classic model from Singer, I completely lose my mind even if I don’t even know how to use them! This time my granny’s one is still in my parents’ house, waiting that one day I’ll have enough space to place it in my dream house! On Vintag I fell in love with this classic piece from Anastasia, then if you are a sewer or not, this piece is top (and the price too!)

4.The vintage phone: total love for this red Bobo Telcer sold by Bogys50s, a real must-have! Let’s be honest, who doesn’t have in his/her heart the fixed phone that we had at home in the 80s when we were kids?

5.The mirror: mirror, mirror…every woman has a special relationship with her mirror, this is why it must be perfect and it must fulfill exactly our expectations. For us it is one of the hardest pieces to buy if it doesn’t reflect the image of us that we want to see. When I saw this one, pale blue, French, from the beginning of the 20th century sold by ohmylab I wished I could look at myself in that mirror…love at first sight!

6.The vanity table: from pale blue to pale pink, I always like a touch of pastel colors in my house (not too much though) and this small vintage vanity table from Hallofvintage made me fall in love: I love the pink and lilac tones, the flowery knob, they just reminded me the colors of my childhood and I couldn’t resist!

7.The hatbox: an essential piece not only because we can easily put there our beautiful vintage hats but also because it is an amazing decoration object! I have two, I bought them in two different vintage markets (one in Milan, the other one in the States…don’t ask me how I did to bring it home!), a leather one and a paper one. On Vintag I really loved this brown leather one from Luisavintage with this beautiful fastening…wonderful!

8.The suitcase/trunk: this is another essential piece because it helps us “archiving” blankets, pillows, and all these things that take so much space in our wardrobe and it is so beautiful to see! Those from L’ho_Sgabello are AMAZING at the point that I couldn’t choose between these two which one I loved most. I also imagine them as huge containers for our big plants in the house, I think I saw something similar during one of my trips and I still keep it as a lovely idea to re-create!

9.The portable record player: A jump in the past but also a must-have for vinyl lovers. Decoration piece and record player at the same time, few objects have the same vintage flavor! This one from MusicManiac made me feel so nostalgic!

10.Tin passion: cans, boxes, pencil sharpeners…Vintag is full of tin objects that unchain our best memories from the past: from Plasmon biscuits to Saiwa ones, from Borotalco to other disappeared or forgotten labels. Filling the house with tin objects is mandatory!

There is another piece that I left out of my top ten list just because it requires some space, but I had to recommend it anyway because it was too good to leave it unmentioned. I am talking about this wonderful mint table and chairs set from L’ho_Sgabello that is – in my opinion – one of the most beautiful homeware pieces that you can find on Vintag right now!

EN: Last month I told you the story of my childhood dream turning into reality thanks to Vintag, the first mobile app completely dedicated to vintage, to buy and sell online. I finally created the vintage shop that I dreamed of when I was a child playing with my granny’s clothes!

Today I want to let you virtually tour my Vintag shop and to tell you what you can find, the story behind each piece of the shop (well, some of them!) because they all have a story to be told: a trip, a memory, a little piece of a world faraway from here in space and time. Unfortunately I don’t always find the time to tell their story when I sell them, so I decided to do it here. Then take a seat, tea and pastries are offered!

The name of my shop is TheLadybugChronicles, which is also the name of my blog: this name is important to me because it contains a lot of my childhood memories including the idea of chronicling. As you probably understood I love telling stories! In this case I do it through clothes, shoes, bags, hats and other original vintage accessories (rarely through retro style repros and in these cases I always say that the piece is not original vintage) that I bought in Italy or throughout the world in vintage markets, charity shops, vintage and second-hand shops, vintage fairs and even some own original childhood pieces (the Naf Naf jumpers or the Best Company cardigan and sweaters – already sold – that were so incredibly popular in Italy in the 90s or some vintage pieces that I bought at the Montagnola market in Bologna when I was a student at University – double vintage!).

Most of the times the objects that I sell tell a story about traveling: some come from Paris, New York, London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Ljubljana, and many other places in the world where I found a vintage piece that I wanted to bring home with me. Some of them were real pearls found in the middle of junk pieces, like the red Bally shoes (an emotional find in the Salvation Army in New York), or the Escada and Marc Jacobs shoes (found in a second-hand shop in Frankfurt in the middle of old shoes in bad conditions) or the Pucci headband (“abandoned” in a charity shop in New York).

There are many “easy” 80s pieces bought in as many Humana shops in the world (especially dresses and shirts) or in markets and vintage shops all over the world, along with rare designer pieces such as the Yves Saint Laurent transparent sequined eyeglasses (a very rare piece from the 80s bought at the Vintage Fair in Padua) and the cat-eye Dior sunglasses (one of my favorite pieces ever, found in the warehouse of a frames shop going out of business – same story for the iconic and impossible to find Silvano Naldoni pink and blue butterfly sunglasses) or the 80s Dior eyeglasses with the old “CD” logo on the side that I bought at one of the first editions of the Vintage Fair in Forlì.

And so much more: vintage capes and fur coats bought from the old ladies selling pieces for a good cause outside the churches; retro hats for every style and era coming from London charity shops or vintage markets from all over Europe; 80s clutches that I used to collect every time that I was in London (basically once a year) where there are the best vintage bags ever; dresses bought online or “rescued” from people emptying closets and attics; original Texan boots bought in New York and in great conditions.

And then there is me: not only me preparing packages and putting dresses and shoes inside to send them around the world to your houses and wardrobes with the joy of knowing that they will find love and care from you. There is me because all of these pieces were not bought to be sold, I bought them for me, because I loved them at first sight and I wanted them with me. I chose them following my taste and for some reason I don’t use them anymore or there is no more space in my wardrobe to keep them and in some way I have to let them go. Sometimes I feel sad when I sell pieces that have a meaning to me because I want to keep them: I look back nostalgically at pictures where I wore them but knowing that they will be in the hands of another vintage lover makes me feel better; it is like giving something that you care for to someone you trust for him/her to take care of it at your place. This is why I am happy of having my own space in a vintage community such as Vintag, because I know that the person that will buy one of my personal memory will love it and will take care of it as if it was his or hers.

If you like I would be happy if you contact me before buying a piece from my shop, so that I can tell you something about its story for you to keep it alive. I am sure that you, like me, treasure the small objects that we often find in vintage bags (a penny, an hairpin, a small mirror, an old piece of paper) because they are part of the story of the object. Well, in the same way I would love that when you buy from me, I can leave you a memory of that piece when it lived with me.

EN: If you followed me last week during my weekend in Madrid you probably noticed “him”, my adored vintage shearling coat that I wore during all the weekend. Temperatures in Madrid were very low and a few days before my arrival it snowed a lot, the reason why I decided to bring it with me: warm, soft and incredibly vintage! It joined my wardrobe just a few weeks ago during a flash sale at I Love Vintage in Milan. Indeed this is the perfect time of the year to get a real bargain as most of the sellers offer super reduced prices at the end of the season on shearling coats and furs. This is why I decided to have a look on Vintag to choose the best shearling coats on sale to fit every style, every body shape and every budget (many are at super bargain prices!).

Until a few days ago I also had one on sale on Vintag: a beautiful long 70s shearling coat that I bought at the Salon du Vintage in Paris a few years ago, but it is now in a vintage lover’s wardrobe who will take care of it from now on!

To be honest I have been looking for the perfect shearling coat for years, as I have been looking for the right man! I met many in the last few years: dark, pale, more or less vintage, long, short, in perfect conditions or a bit used, some of them stayed with me for a while, others never convinced me but none of them made me happy as it does!

The shearling coat is a “must have” for a vintage lover: it is the warmest coat ever as no other coat or fur can be this warm during winter times (believe me, it saved me during many Milanese winter days…and don’t forget I am Sicilian!); also nothing is more vintage than a 70s or 80s shearling coat with these old fashioned shapes, oversize shoulders and sleeves (80s) or with furred collars and fitted shapes (70s); moreover, for how strange it may seem it really goes with everything and it suits every style: in my opinion it is better to buy it in a neutral color (beige, camel, grey or black) in order to pair it almost with everything then you can have fun trying to accessorize it in different ways, from the sneakers to the heeled ankle boots, from denim to shiny or velvet dresses, you will find out that shearling coat is not only a casual piece. In Madrid I had fun pairing it with jeans and biker boots and with shiny turbans and maxi loop earrings and the results was pretty much appreciated in the streets!

The hardest part is to find the “right one” for each of us and to identify the shape that suits us better, just to avoid the “sack effect” if it is too oversize or too long with the risk of looking shorter, fatter at with big shoulders. This is the reason why the shearling coat is a very difficult piece and you need to try patiently many times before finding the perfect match!

Anyway you shouldn’t forget other positive aspects of this piece, for example it is eco-friendly when vintage so: why buying a new one if the app Vintag is full of amazing pieces for every budget?

Anyway I decided to surf the Vintag app to find for you fìmy favorite ones for every style and I can tell you that I found many great coats. Here are my favorite ones (see pictures above):

Honestly my favorite one, an 80s grey coat from _prelovedvintage (currently reduced), oversize but not too much, a great color and a classic shape, maybe it suits better the tallest ones as it is knee-length which is not flattering for everyone; but you can still wear it with heeled ankle boots if you are not too tall!

Very rare with extra fur, I love this coat from giusy268, a bit shorter, it looks so warm and comfy, it is perfect for those who want to dare (this is maybe the reason why I adore it!)

A special one from the 80s in black proposed by Blondiegirl with a tone-on-tone pattern that I adore, as well as I adore the shape and the hips-length that makes it wearable for almost everyone!

If you prefer neutral tones, here is a beige taupe one that I like a lot from Zie Pulci (I know her personally and she is also a very kind and adorable seller): a classic with a great effect!

For those who want it long, I fell in love with this warm piece from temporarystore with paisley embroidery on top and a very feminine shape!

For the 70s lovers a super fitted piece with fur collar from LaTouche, a real pearl, it has been in my Wishlist for a while now!

For the cape lovers I found these two beautiful pieces from Pag (the first one) and circle (the cape)!

Last but not least a piece for our men or for the men reading this: a classic 80s leather shearling coat proposed by unconventionalist.

Let me know what you think, if you want to suggest more or if you liked my choices, maybe you also bought one of them, for which I am pretty jealous because if it is true that I found my perfect shearling coat, it is also true that one is never enough!

EN: When I was a kid people used to ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up and my answer was always the same: I want to sell granny’s clothes. At the time people laughed about it because they all knew about my love for my granny’s wardrobe, the real one: my biggest joy was slipping into it, among those beautiful dresses, bags, jewels and shoes. I couldn’t wait to grow up and wear them too! But I didn’t want new clothes, I just wanted hers! With those clothes I used to play “the shop” with my sister: I sold her the beautiful pieces and she was my favorite customer!

When I was a teenager, “selling my granny’s clothes” became “have a second-hand shop”. My vision evolved especially during my very first trips to London and Paris where I realized that the same clothes of my granny’s wardrobe were sold in small shops or on antiques’ markets stalls and they were called second hand in London and friperies in Paris.

When I started university, although I was studying to become a translator, my childhood dream changed name again. Probably I heard that name for the first time at the Montagnola market in Bologna: I wanted to “have a vintage shop” where I could sell all those pieces smelling the past that I used to see in that market’s stalls. In the meanwhile I graduated and I started working but that dream is still there. After all I still dress vintage, I write about vintage and since a few weeks ago I also have a small vintage shop!

Oh yes! That 20-year old dream is slowly turning into reality thanks to a very simple but genius mobile app: Vintag (you can download here). A few months ago I discovered the app on Instagram: I was very curious and I decided to download it. It was such an hectic moment at work so I didn’t have enough time to study it until the Christmas holidays when I realized that in that app there was everything I have been dreaming of: a world full of “granny’s stuff” just a click away! Vintage, antiques, collectibles coming from Italian sellers, a real paradise for vintage lovers. I couldn’t believe it! And it was just the beginning. I mentioned it on my monthly column on Opherty & Ciocci blog as the new era of online vintage shopping: all the Italian vintage in one app! Not only antiques’ shops, vintage clothing and collectors but also many private sellers who want to buy and sell from the sofa, on the subway or during their lunch break…isn’t that great?

I decided to start using it and I found it incredibly quick, practical and user friendly: it takes less than a minute to publish an ad in a very simple and intuitive way.

I also found out that Vintag is a huge community for all the vintage lovers, for the sellers and buyers, for those who are deeply in love with vintage, for the beginners, for the curious, for those who have their granny’s wardrobe still in their heart. Their Facebook page and their Instagram profile are full of interesting contents and they are growing fast. After all Vintag wants to be the biggest Italian vintage community and it will add soon also contents in English.

As if this was not enough I also found out a fantastic service (that I will use soon) of “vintage consulting” that you can activate via email (consulenze@vintag.store) or via the Vintag Facebook community: if you have doubts about the authenticity of an object, about the era or the market value you can contact Vintag to receive an opinion from a team of vintage experts. It often happens to me to find objects that I am not able to date or possible fake for which I always need to wait for an expert opinion (also because I don’t trust self-evaluation with online support that much!).

So in the end TheLadybugChronicles is now a small online vintage shop on Vintag! Some pieces come from my wardrobe (not from my granny’s one though!) and some come from my travel experiences in vintage markets from all over the world. If you want to have a look at my first online vintage shop (I feel excited when I’m writing these words!) you can look for TheLadybugChronicles in the app.

I want to know what you think about my little shop, the Vintag app and the social community…I am very curious to know your opinion!